Source: Telegraph
Liverpool appoint Christian Purslow as their new managing director
Purslow, an Anfield season-ticket holder, will join the board and take over many of the responsibilities of outgoing chief executive Rick Parry, but will step aside when a full-time replacement for Parry is appointed.
Purslow's priorities will be to renegotiate the £350m loan with RBS due to be repaid at the end of July and to work with manager Rafa Benitez on summer transfer targets.
Purslow, whose background is in private equity, speaks fluent Spanish and has already struck a relationship with Benitez. He is understood to have played a role in the negotiations surrounding Fernando Torres's new contract.
A friend of club legend Kenny Dalglish, Purslow was recommended to owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett as a potential new board member and has the support of both of them. Crucially this should allow him to bridge the divide that occasionally appears before the American owners.
The new managing director is also said to have decent relations with senior staff at RBS including chief executive Stephen Hester, and club sources said the bank welcomed his appointment.
Talks with RBS will take place imminently, with the owners prospects of satisfying the bank's demands enhanced by Gillett's impending sale of the Montreal Canadiens. With Hicks yet to raise finance from his for sale US assets, it remains to be seen if this affects the delicate equilibrium between the owners.
